I would've never thought it would be this quick - second time out! After that pleasant evening of all-you-can-hook schoolies at the refuge, I woke up at the Chatham Angler's Club thanks to my host striblue and his son. Jeff Borkowski met us at 5am and we were on our way. We started at a river outlet where a 27" fish promptly grabbed my coho squid, a remnant form the PNW ocean salmon days. Not a bad start to the day. We then ran over to meet Rip Ryder for a maiden voyage to the mecca.

I forget who kicked it off, I think it was Jeff. No sooner had John Sr and Jr reached their spot and they were hooking up. My first was quite stout and I knew it was no schoolie - after a bunch of runs it turned out to be the first "K" of the year, a 29incher with plenty of brown sealice - but this is by 2001 standards. The fish took off like a rocket when I released it in the cool current.

The four of us kept entertained with consistent schoolie action until John and his son needed to get back. That was one hour and we had already had a heck of a morning. I was tempted to leave right then, having landed that nice fish. It was a chance to get extra time to make some visits to friends on Cape I needed to meet with and my better half was home watching the clock to keep a promised appointment.

With Jeff and John urging against, I stayed until the next pickup. GLAD I DID! Things started to get out of hand with the birds, bait and fish busting. I started to get whumped by bigger fish, and cold feel the electricity in the moment. I stripped my rip trip sized deep eel (that's what the terns were catching) in a shock-and-stop retrieve and WHAM! A good fish started to rip the line into the backing. It made several good runs and eventually grew more tired as it resisted coming onto the sandy shelf. Eventually it gave in - a bright, sea-liced 31" spring beauty!

Jeff was kickin' butt too, but I'll let him tell the story himself.

Anyway, it was really awesome to break the legal milestone (although it really doesn't matter cause they both swam away) twice on the second outing of the year. I must admit it's not something that I do every year! Most years I am a micro-bass magnet ;-)

A sincere congratulations over the stellar day on the water. Jeff called me from his cell on the way home. He handled me gently as he told me that you guys spanked em' good. He was unnecessarily tender with me, I was psyched for you guys.

The truth is, I was going to go with you guys this morning. However, my honey flew back into Boston last night and I really wanted to be with her since I hadn't seen her in 10 days or so. She felt a little guilty after Jeff's enthusiastic call, especially with me beaming and fast talking after Jeff called. As she put it, "The best scenario would have been if you were there to catch fish and I was there to catch some with you." Well said. That's why I bought her waders last week.

I am pumped that you guys slayed them today. I hope that we have a repeat performance next weekend.

And Jeff...maybe I do put a negative mojo on our efforts when we fish the Cape!!!

Yes it was a great day... to bad I had to get back to the CAC to finish painting... which I did. Juro started it of at Red River Beach with one nice fish. Then, as Juro said we had a great morning considering we were not there long. I was back at my place by 10 AM. My son lost one big racer blue as it bit off just as he got into range to see the size. Anyway, fish caught for the first time with my own tied flies. I am talking to Juro about how I need to leave and he says that he should be going too... while looking at me and striping at the same time..bang he 's on and ,needless to say, thought twice about leaving. Good to meet Jeff and I know he had a memorable day... Later in the day Hawkeye and Ed N. dropped by to shoot the breeze and have coffee. Hawkeye and I made arrangements to meet at 8 AM next Saturday, during the clave, to head over to South Beach and the upper Bath tub. Hope to see a lot of you next weekend.

Sorry I missed you Juro but Dick and I got to see the CAC firs
t hand. Thanks for the coffee
John looking forward to our clave trip. Ran into Randy Jones before we went to the CAC and got the report from Randy first hand. Will book a trip with him in the summer.
Dick and I saw serveral blitzes in the tub. I missed a nice fish close to shore. There should be and explosion of fish durning the Clave.
FishHawk

Well I was in the area as well and had a good day though not quite as good as the above posts. I fished the beach from the Rip Ryder starting point (the base of the stairs) all the way out to near the outlet across from the hardings light. I saw a couple of 30 - 33 inchers cruising the flats and I promptly spooked them by standing perfectly still and silently praying "don't see me, don't see me". I didn't start hitting fish until I got to the spot where the channel comes close to shore. At that point I was into steady action with fish up to 24" and most fought well for their size. All through the day I was seeing schools of ten or so cruising up the current and I knew the season was full upon us - finally.

I gave my cell # to a few people in the hopes we might hook up and my apologies to anyone who tried to call and didn't get an answer. My cell phone can only be answered by stripers, blues, horshoe crabs, etc. as it is now somewhere off the beach of Morris Island. At least I didn't lose something really important like a box of flies.

Great News Guys!
My buddy Jeff and I had a more slower, but expeditious day. South Cape was fairly quiet, minus two guys slamming fish (in boat) at the mouth of Waquit Bay (Great rip formation). Few Visable approx 30 inch cruisers-no takes. Bass River: few schoolies (if not Pre-schoolers). LOVED THE WIND TODAY!
Only placed not visited, of course, Chatham!
Looking forward to this upcoming w/e and seeing everyone.
5 more days!!!
Brian Z.

Having been out a total of six times now (three times on the Cape...skunked the first two times), this was my first truly successful day striper fishing. Before Saturday, I was addicted. Since Saturday, I am hopelessly addicted.

I figured we were having a good day when I heard Juro exclaim "I can't believe we forgot a camera!!" for about the umteenth time. As a photographer, I take full responsibility. Nonetheless, it is not a day I will soon forget.

Thanks Juro for your guidance; I learned a lot, and I look forward to fishing with you again....so long as next time I get to catch the BIG one.

John and John Jr, it was a pleasure meeting you...wish you could have been there for the closing blitz.

Doogue, wish you and Kirsten could have been there.

Good Luck this weekend!! Unfortunately, I am going to have to sit Saturday out...I do have a major case of striper thumb to get over.